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Viribus unitis! shall be our watchword:the first International Congress ofMathematicians, held 9–11 August 1897in ZurichStefanie Eminger aa University of St Andrews

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BSHM Bulletin

Volume 27 (2012), 155–168

Viribus unitis! shall be our watchword: thefirst International Congress of Mathematicians,

held 9–11 August 1897 in Zurich

Stefanie Eminger

University of St Andrews

Georg Cantor voiced the need for opportunities facilitating international mathematicalcooperation as early as in 1888. A decade and efforts by a number of mathematicians later, thefirst International Congress of Mathematicians marked the beginning of an era wherepersonal relations between mathematicians were considered to be of great importance.Furthermore, it set the standards for future congresses. As well as giving an overview of thepre-history and the organization of the congress, I look at a wider historic context, conjectureon the reasons why it was held in Zurich and why such a great emphasis was placed on thesocial aspect. This paper is a slightly modified version of the talk given at the BSHM Researchin Progress Meeting held 3 March 2012 in Oxford.

Changes to science during the nineteenth century

During the nineteenth century, science became increasingly important and

popular. The industrial revolution, and towards the end of the century

inventions such as steam power and telegraphs, raised society’s awareness of

science and technology; and, as economic prosperity increased, higher education

became more important. However, teaching was no longer considered the mainactivity of a university professor; research started to play an equally crucial part in

the job description. This resulted in an ever-growing number of scientists slowly

starting to collaborate internationally (Lehto 1998, 1). In mathematics, this

happened rather late in comparison to sciences such as astronomy, geology, or

cartography.One of the results of this new significance of science was the foundation of

scientific societies; the first mathematical society was founded in Moscow in 1864.

Other societies followed in most European countries and in North America. As moreand more research was done, the number of mathematical journals and books

published each year increased ‘at a rapid pace’ (Lehto 1998, 2). One of these journals

was the Jahrbuch uber die Fortschritte der Mathematik (Yearbook on the Progress of

Mathematics), first published in 1871. The Jahrbuch was the first of many

bibliographical catalogues that provided mathematicians all over the world with

an overview of current research and developments in their respective fields. Soon it

‘became indispensable for mathematical research’ (Lehto 1998, 2).However, all the editors and the reviewers were German. The editors appealed

for international cooperation and indeed, from the second volume on, some of thereviewers were non-German. The number of different countries represented

increased with each new volume. Interestingly, none of the reviewers were French.

The French first published their own Repertoire bibliographique des sciences

mathematiques in 1885. It was a catalogue of all mathematical publications, divided

BSHM Bulletin ISSN 1749–8430 print/ISSN 1749–8341 online � 2012 British Society for the History of Mathematicshttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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into various sections and subsections. Soon, the French editors were joined byinternational colleagues, too.

For quite a while, French and German mathematicians did not have any meansof communicating mathematical ideas apart from exchanging letters directly. TheSwedish mathematician Gosta Mittag-Leffler published papers by both French andGerman mathematicians in his journal Acta Mathematica (founded in 1882), thusproviding ‘a privileged place for communication between German and Frenchresearchers where the patriotic sensibilities of the various protagonists would not beoffended’ (Decaillot 2009).

Comparatively late, in 1894, a joint international bibliographical project waslaunched, the Enzyklopadie der mathematischen Wissenschaften (Encyclopaedia ofMathematical Sciences), with the first issue being published in November 1898.Though of German origin, the emphasis of the project was on German–Frenchcooperation. In fact, German and French mathematicians worked together toproduce a French edition of the encyclopaedia, which was ‘not merely a translation,but an adaptation’ as Walther von Dyck puts it in the preface to the first volume(Meyer 1904, XVIII). The initiators of the project were Felix Klein (professor at theuniversity in Gottingen), Heinrich Weber (professor at the university in Strasbourg)and Franz Meyer (at the time professor at the mining academy in Clausthal). Incontrast to the earlier bibliographical publications, the encyclopaedia includedpapers in a range of mathematical fields and also catered for physics, mechanics andastronomy and geophysics.

Not surprisingly, the relations between France and Germany had greatly suffereddue to the Franco-Prussian war (1870–71). The French saw the reason for Prussia’svictory in its scientific superiority and therefore wanted to catch up with the scientificdevelopments in Germany. Germany on the other hand was a young, strong empirewith all the German states united, and it had imperialistic aspirations, wanting ‘aplace in the sun’. A lot of effort was put into expanding and improving the empire’snaval fleet, which was paid for with French reparations. Science was considered to bekey to military development and as a result, the German government supportedscientific research.

Whilst scientific progress was furthered in the name of patriotism in France andGermany, the respective governments did little to support international cooperation.In fact, political tension grew across Europe, yet the end of the nineteenth centuryalso saw a drastic increase in scientific exchange and cooperation. A lot of thischange was brought about by individuals or scientific societies rather than bygovernmental bodies.

Cantor’s idea of an international congress

In mathematics, most of the early international collaborations concerned biblio-graphical projects. Georg Cantor, professor in Halle, was one of the first to expressthe necessity of international collaboration beyond the bibliographical level. He wasa fervent advocate of the idea of a mathematical society in Germany and proposed in1888 that ‘German and French mathematicians should meet at a neutral site’ (Lehto1998, 3), for example, in Belgium, Switzerland or the Netherlands.

Leaving international cooperation aside for a moment and looking at the state ofmathematical cooperation in Germany itself, it is clear that Cantor’s ideas were inaccordance with the spirit of the time. Until the 1890s, there were hardly any

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opportunities for German-speaking mathematicians to cultivate friendships witheach other. A few meetings of societies such as the Gesellschaft deutscherNaturforscher und Arzte (Society for German natural scientists and physicians)included mathematical sections where they could present their work. However, inJena in 1890, a number of mathematics and science teachers founded the Verein zurForderung des Unterrichts in der Mathematik und in den Naturwissenschaften (Societyfor the promotion of mathematics and science education). This had becomenecessary because of attempts to reform higher education at the time. Furthermore,mathematics and science teachers wanted to stand their ground against the interestsof the arts teachers (Anonymous 1897, 257).

In the same year the German Mathematical Society was founded and GeorgCantor became its first president. At the time he already had the idea of aninternational congress of mathematicians. At first, he was not taken very seriously bysome of his colleagues, as is shown by a letter that Walther von Dyck wrote to FelixKlein in August 1890 (Lehto 1998, 3):

Recently G. Cantor wrote me about very high-flying plans regarding interna-tional congresses of mathematicians. I really do not know whether that is areal need.

From 1894 until 1896, Cantor was in correspondence on the subject ofinternational congresses with a number of mathematicians, including AleksanderVasilyev, Charles Hermite, Camille Jordan, Henri Poincare, Charles-Ange Laisant,Emile Lemoine, Felix Klein and Walther von Dyck. Cantor argued that a congresswould serve as a much-needed international forum where the ever-growingmathematical community could present and discuss their work without prejudice.He himself needed such a forum to present his work, as not all his German colleaguesapproved of his new and radical ideas in set theory. The fact that he began to stresshis non-German origin—his father came from Denmark, and Cantor himself wasborn in St Petersburg—made him fall out of favour with the German mathema-ticians even more.

One of the German mathematicians who did not see eye to eye with Cantor wasFelix Klein. However, Klein recognized the need for international cooperationwhen he attended the congress of mathematicians and astronomers in Chicago inAugust 1893. It was one of the satellite conferences held on the occasion of theChicago World’s Columbian Exposition, organized in order to celebrate the 400thanniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America. The mathematical congress hadforty-five participants, four of whom came from countries other than the UnitedStates. These four international mathematicians were all Europeans. In fact, thecentres of mathematics were all European at this time, ‘yet a mathematicalconference as early as 1893 with participants from two continents was a historicalevent’ (Lehto 1998, 5).

Felix Klein went to Chicago in his capacity as imperial commissioner of theGerman emperor Wilhelm II. He took with him papers of several of his colleaguesand also gave an opening address, ‘The present state of mathematics’. In his speechhe pointed out the threat to mathematics of being split into different branches, thenecessity of international collaboration and the benefits that mathematical societiesbrought to mathematics. He said that mathematicians ‘must form internationalunions, and I trust that this . . .World Congress will be a step in that direction’(Albers et al. 1987, 3).

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Felix Klein and Heinrich Weber became the leading figures in organizing aninternational congress on the German side. They got much more support from theirpeers than Cantor had received a few years previously, as German mathematicians(both members and non-members of the society) expressed the wish for aninternational congress of mathematicians to be organized, particularly ‘in view of thesuccesses achieved by international communication in other areas of science’(Anonymous 1897, 258). However, nothing was done about organizing such acongress: in 1895, the German mathematical society claimed to support the idea ofan international congress in principle after French mathematicians had presented theidea to their German colleagues at the society’s annual meeting the year before, butthey refused to organize it (Lehto 1998, 7). As for Georg Cantor, he eventuallyabandoned the project, probably due to the fact that his ideas had met with so muchresistance. He did attend the first congress though.

The idea of a congress spreads across Europe

Two of Cantor’s most supportive correspondents on the subject of internationalcongresses were the French mathematicians Charles-Ange Laisant and EmileLemoine. They presented the idea of an international congress in the first volumeof their journal L’Intermediaire des mathematiciens and explaining that it came fromboth French and foreign mathematicians. Besides Laisant and Lemoine, Cantorcould also claim Poincare’s support (Decaillot, 2009).

The idea that an international congress should be organized began to spreadacross Europe and beyond from 1894 onwards. The French and the Americanmathematical societies backed the idea of an international congress, but neitheroffered to organize it. It was agreed, however, that the congress should bepermanent, be held at regular intervals of three to five years and follow a number ofrules that were to be established. The French mathematical society at least declaredthat it would support a trial congress.

Cantor had proposed that a trial should be held in a neutral country, Switzerlandor Belgium, in 1897, and that the first actual congress should be held in Paris in 1900.The choice of the host country remained open for quite a while, but in December1895, it became clear that Switzerland was preferred over Belgium, especially ‘in viewof the Swiss tradition of promoting international interests’ (Lehto 1998, 7).Moreover, Klein and Weber suggested that the congress should be held in Zurich.The presidents of the German and French mathematical societies approved of thissuggestion and contacted the geometer Carl Friedrich Geiser at the FederalPolytechnic1 in Zurich, as Geiser himself explained in a letter to all his colleagues inZurich, inviting them to a preliminary meeting on 21 July 1896.2 The presidentsmade a very good choice in approaching Geiser, as ‘in addition to many leaders inpolitics and economics [he] knew almost all important mathematicians of this time inGermany, France and Italy in person; he was even friends with many of them’(Meissner 1934, 372). Furthermore, he ‘had proven himself to be very skilled inadministrative matters, in particular in his capacity as director of the FederalPolytechnic from 1861–1887 and from 1891–1895’ (Frei and Stammbach 1994, 1).The fact that Geiser was in Zurich might not have been the primary reason for asking

1 ‘Eidgenossisches Polytechnikum’, renamed Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ‘Eidgenossische

Technische Hochschule’ (ETH), in 1911.2 ETH archives HS 637: 1 part 2, letter by Geiser to his colleagues, 16 July 1896.

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the Swiss to organize the congress, however it seems to have been a contributingfactor rather than just an added bonus.

The Zurich committee organizes the congress

The mathematicians who attended the preliminary meeting in July 1896 unanimouslydecided that they would host an international congress. An organizing committeewas elected, comprising the Polytechnic professors Geiser, Ferdinand Rudio, AdolfHurwitz, Jerome Franel, and the assistants Gustave Dumas and Johann JakobRebstein as secretaries. Geiser was elected president. Out of the committee members,Ferdinand Rudio in particular made a name for himself in helping to organize thecongress. He edited the congress minutes and was involved in drafting the congressregulations with Geiser. Moreover, he became one of the driving forces behind thepublication of Euler’s complete works.

At the first meeting in November 1896, Hermann Minkowski and thePolytechnic’s director Albin Herzog joined the committee. It is worth noting thatthe organization of the congress was completely in the hands of mathematicians atthe Polytechnic to begin with. Frei and Stammbach claim that the reason for this wasthat the University of Zurich was ‘not very well-staffed’ in mathematics at the time(Frei and Stammbach 1994, 1). Eduard Gubler and Heinrich Burkhardt from theUniversity of Zurich joined the organizing committee in December 1896 and January1897 respectively. The organizing committee grew throughout the months leading upto the congress; new members were lecturers at the Polytechnic (for example, ArthurHirsch and Marius Lacombe) and mathematics teachers at secondary schools inZurich (most importantly Walter Grobli and Fritz Butzberger).

Geiser had contacted various mathematicians after the preliminary meetingin July 1896 and asked them for opinions and suggestions. At the first meeting ofthe organizing committee (at that time still consisting of seven members) on 12November 1896, Geiser could report that ‘the idea was received favourablyeverywhere where the calling of a congress had been announced’.3 Then Rudiogave an account of the meeting of the German Mathematical Society’s executivecommittee in Frankfurt in July to which he had been invited. He brought back anumber of valuable suggestions concerning the date and duration of the congress andits financing as well as publications associated to the congress and the invitations.The Germans also requested that the congress should cover only developments inmore general areas of mathematics such as bibliography rather than being ‘acollection point for talks and communications’.4

In accordance with the wishes expressed by the majority of mathematicians thecommittee decided that the congress should be held from 9 to 11 August 1897. TheFrench Societe pour l’avancement des sciences had a meeting at roughly the sametime, but the Zurich committee decided that the three days they had designatedwould be the most suitable.

The committee then decided that there should be three general meetings and anumber of individual sections. The general meetings were to provide an opportunityfor discussing business matters and for four talks ‘of a more universal significance for

3ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, minutes book of the organizing committee (German), meeting on

12 November 1896.4 ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, minutes book of the organizing committee (German), meeting on

12 November 1896.

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which specific invitations would have to be issued, in particular with regard to theinternational nature of the congress’ (Rudio 1898, 4). Furthermore there were to be anumber of sections for subject-specific talks. The format of the congress was verysimilar to the format of scientific meetings at the time; in the proceedings Rudiopoints out that the meetings of the Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft(Swiss Society for Natural Scientists) in particular served as an inspiration. Thecommittee also decided to publish the congress proceedings after the congress, butrefrained from releasing a celebratory publication before the congress due tofinancial reasons.

Following a proposal by the German Mathematical Society, the committee choseto send out the invitations to the congress to individual mathematicians rather thanto mathematical societies (see Figure 1). Moreover, the Germans recommended thatthe organizing committee should be enlarged by a number of foreign mathematiciansand nominated Klein as their representative. The Zurich committee then decided thatGeiser should invite the following mathematicians to join the enlarged committee:Gosta Mittag-Leffler (Sweden) for Scandinavia, Henri Poincare for France, LuigiCremona for Italy, Franz Mertens for Austria and Andrey Markov for Russia.

Figure 1. Part of the invitation circular, January 1897 (Rudio 1898, 5)

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Klein was commissioned to designate representatives for the UK and the USA. His

choices, announced at the committee’s next meeting in December 1896, were Alfred

George Greenhill and George William Hill.5

Thus, the invitations to the congress that were sent out to 2000 mathematicians

and mathematical physicists all over the world in January 1897 were signed by an

impressive list of mathematicians, ‘comprising [. . .] 3 categories, the ‘‘Zurichers’’, the

‘‘Swiss’’ (beyond Zurich) and the ‘‘foreigners’’, in total 21 members’ (see Figure 2).6

Most of the international members on the inviting committee seem to have been

chosen due to their reputations in the mathematical community. Their names were

well known, therefore adding weight to the invitations as well as emphasizing the

international nature of the congress. Moreover, they had excellent contacts with

most of the mathematicians in their respective countries; Hill for example was the

president of the American Mathematical Society at the time. Most of the members of

the inviting or international committee helped to distribute the invitations in their

respective countries. They were joined by mathematicians in countries that were not

represented on the committee, including Paul Mansion in Belgium, Pieter Hendrik

Schoute in the Netherlands and Cyparissos Stephanos in Greece. These mathema-

ticians also attended the congress, compared to most of the foreign members on the

Figure 2. The international committee: Signatures on the first invitation, January 1897 (Rudio 1898, 6)

5As for the choice of Greenhill, the German and French versions of the minutes differ: According to the

French version, Klein suggested that Greenhill should be the British representative on the committee, but

according to the German version Klein only nominated Hill as the American representative and

recommended that the organizing committee should contact the mathematical society in London.

(ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, minutes book of the organising committee (German), and part 2,

minutes in French, meeting on 8 December 1896).6 ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, minutes book of the organizing committee (German), meeting on

21 January 1897.

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inviting committee. Poincare, who had been invited to give one of the plenarylectures, had to cancel a few days before the congress due to a family bereavement.As for the others, there are no records in the committee minutes as to why they didnot attend. In fact, the committee decided in late July that ‘an autograph lettershould be addressed to Mr Greenhill, in which he is asked to attend the congress inhis capacity as signatory of the invitation’.7 Apart from distributing the invitations,the members of the international committee were invited to give their opinions on thefuture format of such congresses.

Rudio proposed already in December 1896 that the organizing committee shouldelect four subcommittees with three members each. These subcommittees dealt withthe following areas: finances (president: Grobli), board and lodging (president:Rudio), amusement (president: Herzog) and reception (president: Hurwitz). Theamusement and reception committees immediately set to work and drafted acongress programme. A preliminary programme was attached to a second invitationthat was sent out to all mathematicians in May 1897, reminding them of the congressand asking them to return their application cards by 1 August.

The attendance fees8 paid by the participants and the accompanying ladiescovered about half of the total cost of the congress (11,243.35 Franks). The rest waspaid for with subsidies from the Swiss government and the municipalities both of thecanton and the town Zurich, as well as with donations from individuals (mostlyindustrialists and merchants) and the Polytechnic’s alumni society Gesellschaftehemaliger Polytechniker.9 Here Geiser’s and also Herzog’s excellent contacts provedvery useful. In addition to sending official petitions, they met their friends in therelevant authorities, which Rudio did not approve of—he would have preferred touse the official channels only.10

The congress days: 9 to 11 August 1897

On the evening before the congress, on Sunday, 8 August, the international invitingcommittee met in order to discuss several administrative matters. However, onlyeleven members (out of twenty one) attended this meeting: Geiser, Bleuler, Dumas,Franel, Hirsch, Klein, Mertens, Minkowski, Mittag-Leffler, Rudio andVonderMuhll. Furthermore, Francesco Brioschi, Charles-Ange Laisant,Aleksander Vasilyev and Heinrich Weber attended the meeting as well upon specialinvitations.

The committee discussed and eventually approved the congress programme andthe agenda items that had to be presented to the congress participants. This includedthe regulations on which the congress was to be based and a number of resolutions,which had to be adopted by the participants at one of the general meetings. Both theregulations and the resolutions had been drafted by Geiser. Laisant had devised avery detailed organization plan and it seems that the committee used some of hissuggestions when drafting the regulations. According to the regulations a congress

7 ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, minutes book of the organizing committee (German), meeting on

31 July 1897.8Attendance was 25 Franks for participants and 15 Franks for accompanying ladies. The fees covered

admittance to all general and all section meetings as well as all the banquets and outings in the official

congress programme.9 ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, cashbook of the organizing committee.10ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 1, minutes book of the organizing committee (German), meeting on

18 February 1897.

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executive committee was to be elected at the first general meeting, consisting of a

president, two general secretaries (one native German speaker and one native French

speaker) who were also the official translators, four secretaries (one each for

German, French, Italian and English) and eight ordinary members.11 Suitable

candidates were nominated at the meeting of the international committee on the

Sunday, the choices were confirmed by the congress participants the day after. Not

surprisingly, Geiser was elected president and Rudio and Franel became the general

secretaries.12

The reception committee spent the entire Sunday at the train station, welcoming

the mathematicians, ‘many of whom were fortunately also accompanied by their

ladies’ (Rudio 1898, 22) and issuing the congress cards and vouchers for the banquets

and the outings. In addition, each participant also received either French or German

copies of the programme, the regulations and the resolutions, as well as an illustrated

guidebook of Zurich, published by the official transport committee of the town

Zurich.This was the congress programme:

Sunday 8 August

. Arrival

. Reception and refreshments in the Tonhalle (see Figure 3)

Monday 9 August

. First general meeting

. Banquet

. Steamboat outing to Rapperswil13

Tuesday 10 August

. Section meetings

Wednesday 11 August

. Second general meeting

. Banquet on the Uetliberg14

Geiser officially opened the congress at the first general meeting the next morning.

The two plenary speakers were Poincare (his paper was read out by Franel) and

Hurwitz. In addition, Rudio spoke ‘Uber die Aufgaben und die Organisation der

internationalen mathematischen Kongresse’ (On the duties and the organization of

the international mathematical congresses). He presented the resolutions prepared by

11Art. 3 of the congress regulations (Rudio, 1898, 14).12The secretaries were E von Weber (German), E Borel (French), V Volterra (Italian) and J P Pierpont

(English). The ordinary members were N Bugaev, F Brioschi, F Klein, J S Mackay, G Mittag-Leffler,

E Picard, H Poincare and HWeber. As Poincare could not attend the congress, F Mertens was elected as a

ninth member (ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 2, minutes of the international committee, meeting on 8

August 1897 and Rudio, 1898, 30).13 Rapperswil in the canton St Gallen is a municipality situated on the northern shore of Lake Zurich.

According to the proceedings it took the congress participants a little more than an hour to get there by

steamboat. The boat was to be met by an illuminated gondola parade when approaching Zurich in the

evening, but the parade had to be cancelled due to bad weather. However many official and private

buildings on the lake front were illuminated (Rudio 1898, 44).14Zurich’s local mountain, accessible by train and a popular destination for a day out.

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the organizing committee and gave examples of areas where collaborations between

mathematicians of various countries were not only possible but in fact necessary,

such as a mathematical bibliography and publishing the complete works of Euler.The plenary speakers had been chosen by the organizing committee, or, more

precisely, by a sub-committee that was formed in February 1897 and comprised

Geiser, Hurwitz, and Minkowski. The task of this sub-committee was choosing the

speakers for the general meetings and for the sessions of the individual sections. For

the general meetings, they were looking for ‘general talks by men whose names

would have a certain ring to them’.15 After some debate and some re-scheduling, the

four plenary speakers were Henri Poincare and Adolf Hurwitz at the first general

meeting, as mentioned above, and Giuseppe Peano and Felix Klein at the second

meeting. As for the individual sections, Geiser approached a number of mathema-

ticians directly (including all members of the international committee), asking them

whether they were interested in giving a talk or whether they could recommend any

colleagues. The five sections were:

. Algebra and Number Theory

. Analysis and Theory of Functions

. Geometry

. Mechanics and Physics

. History and Bibliography

Figure 3. The Tonhalle in Zurich in 1900 (Wikimedia Commons Public Domain, http://commons.

wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tonhalle_Z%C3%BCrich_1900.jpg)

15ETH archives, HS 637:1 part 1, minutes of the organizing committee (German), meeting on 11 May

1897.

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A total of twenty-four talks were given in the sessions of these sections. Comparingthis to the twenty plenary lectures and the approximately one hundred and seventytalks in twenty different sections scheduled for the next ICM in Seoul in 2014(Website ICM 2014), one can see that the international congresses have come a longway since the very first one in Zurich. Incidentally, the original intention was not tocount the Zurich congress at all, but to regard it as a trial congress and then countthe Paris congress in 1900 as the first proper one. However, partly due to the greatsuccess of the Zurich congress it is regarded as the first ICM.

Admittedly, the organizers of the ICM in Seoul can expect several thousandparticipants. The Zurich congress had two hundred and forty two participants intotal, of which thirty eight were ladies. According to the information provided inthe list of participants in the proceedings, some of these ladies were the wives ofthe participating mathematicians, while others seem to have been their daughters.Geiser for example was accompanied by his wife Emma and by his two daughters(Rudio 1898, 68). No female mathematicians attended the congress, which is notsurprising given that the congress was held at the end of the nineteenth century.The time of the congress also explains the fact that the vast majority of theattendants were European. At the time, the major centres of mathematicalresearch were at European universities, two prominent examples being Paris andGottingen.

Sixteen countries were represented, with Switzerland, Germany, France and Italyaccounting for roughly two thirds of the male participants (see Figure 4). Whilst theorganizing committee coordinated the date of the congress with meetings of Germanand French scientific societies, it could not consider every country. In the same yearthere was a congress in Kiev that most Russian mathematicians would

Figure 4. Participants listed by countries and by gender (Rudio 1898, 78)

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have attended. Furthermore, the British Association of Mathematicians had a

meeting in Canada,16 which might explain the surprisingly low number of British

participants.17

Most of the male attendants were mathematicians and mathematical physicists

who held lectureships or professorships at university, but the list of participants also

includes a relatively large number of secondary school teachers, as well as a few

publishers and representatives of various Swiss authorities.Although the number of participants at ICMs (and hence the number of talks)

and the number of countries represented by said participants have increased

considerably since 1897, the regulations on which the congresses are based have not

changed all that much since then. Of course, they have been edited and amended over

the decades, in particular as the congresses are now organized under the auspices of

the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The IMU’s Guidelines are more

detailed than the regulations that the Zurich congress was based on, the committees

now have to consider gender balance and an appropriate distribution of countries, in

particular developing countries, when inviting speakers etc. But the essence of those

guidelines is still the same as that of the 1897 regulations: that the congresses should

provide mathematicians from all over the world with an opportunity to get to know

each other and to discuss mathematical questions, regardless of their nationalities.

So, with the exception of part (d), one could say that the first article of the

regulations of 1897 is still valid today:

Art. 1

The congress has the purpose of:

(a) Furthering the personal relations between the mathematicians of various

countries;(b) Providing [. . .] an overview over the current state of the various fields of

mathematical sciences and their applications, as well as the treatment of

individual problems of particular importance;(c) [Discussing] the tasks and the organization of future international

congresses;(d) Preparing a solution for problems on bibliography, terminology etc, which

require international cooperation.

(Rudio 1898, 14, author’s translation)

Another part of the regulations which is of particular interest is the following, as

it highlights both the international nature of the congress and the fact that the host

country was Switzerland:

Art. 4

The official publications of the congress are to be in German and French. In the

main meetings and the sessions of the individual sections, votes and talks in

Italian or English are permitted as well.

(Rudio 1898, 14, author’s translation)

16ETH archives, HS 637: 1 part 2, minutes of the organizing committee (French), meeting on 8 December

1896.17The three British attendants were the Cambridge lecturers Ernest William Hobson and Joseph Larmor,

and the schoolteacher John Sturgeon Mackay from Edinburgh.

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Despite the second part of the article, German and French were predominant.Two talks were given in Italian, and one talk was scheduled in English.18 However,due to popular demand and the fact that hardly any native English speakers attendedthe congress that talk was given in German (Rudio 1898, 45). Given the tensepolitical situation between Germany and France the all-round bilingualism of thecongress was probably a very wise choice. The organizing committee saw to a fairdistribution of languages with regard to the talks and ensured that German andFrench versions of every printed matter relating to the congress were available. Ofcourse, this came very naturally to the Swiss: their country was multilingual, as wasthe committee itself.

The social side of the congress

As mentioned above, the organizing committee was keen to plan the socialprogramme of the congress. On 31 January 1897, a slightly disgruntled Minkowskiwrote in a letter to David Hilbert (Frei and Stammbach 1994, 3):

The schedules for the outings etc at the congress have already been drafted; heretoo the scientific part comes last again.

Of course, the committee had to start work somewhere, and without a doubt they feltvery honoured that Switzerland had been chosen as the first host country. Offeringthe participants a range of opportunities to explore Zurich and its surroundingsprobably also helped to get funding. But the minutes of the committee meetings andthe speeches given at the congress itself suggest that the social aspect was prioritized,and that the mathematical part was almost thought of as taking care of itself. This isnicely illustrated by Hurwitz’s welcoming speech at the reception on 8 August: ratherthan talking about mathematical collaborations and mathematics in general, heemphasized the social side of the congress, stressing the ‘hermitic’ (Rudio 1898, 23)mathematician’s need to talk to colleagues. Apart from having the opportunity todiscuss scientific problems, he hoped that the congress participants would ‘enjoy thecheerful and informal company of [their] peers, enhanced by the knowledge thatrepresentatives of various nations feel connected in peace and friendship by the mostideal interests’ (Rudio 1898, 23). Hurwitz considered these ‘most ideal interests’ to bethe search for knowledge and scientific truth, rather than political or economicinterests.

Similarly, Rudio claimed in his talk on 9 August that ‘international congresses ofmathematicians would have a right to exist even if their only purpose was to bringmathematicians of all countries of the Earth closer together’ (Rudio 1898, 32 f.). Theimportance of personal relations was stressed in practically every speech given at thecongress. Mathematicians were distinguished from one another only by theirmathematical preferences but not by their nationalities. Both the congress proceed-ings (including the speeches) and the organizing committee’s minutes imply subtlythat one of the objectives of the congress was to overcome, or to attempt toovercome, animosities between French and German mathematicians. Althoughmathematical collaborations were discussed, for example, publishing Euler’s works,the predominant opinion at the time seemed to be that real mathematical progresscould only be achieved by individuals. Geiser nicely explains this in his opening

18‘On pasigraphy, its present state and the pasigraphic movement in Italy’ by Ernst Schroder from

Karlsruhe.

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speech: ‘Surely none of us will believe that in future the solution of great problems in

science will be the result of such meetings’ (Rudio 1898, 27). But despite (or possibly

because of) the solitary nature of mathematical research, great value was attached to

exchanging ideas and establishing friendships with other mathematicians. As the

European countries became more and more imperialistic and also nationalistic

towards the end of the nineteenth century, this was all the more important.In a nutshell, it can be said that the first international congress of mathematicians

was a success. It paved the way for future congresses, and the fact that the ICMs are

not only still held today, but have increased significantly in size, importance and

popularity since 1897 is a tribute to the organizing committee’s work. Geiser could

not have foreseen such a development, he could only have hoped for it when he bid

farewell to the congress participants at the second general meeting on 11 August

1897 (Rudio 1898, 60, author’s translation):

And if, at the end of this lovely day, I call out a cordial farewell to you all on

behalf of my colleagues in Zurich, then I may also assume to speak in accordance

with the kind invitation of our peers from France when I add:

Auf Wiedersehen in Paris – See you in Paris!

Bibliography

Archival Material:HS 637: 1, ETH-Library Zurich.

Albers, Donald J, Alexanderson, Gerald L, and Reid, Constance, International Mathematical

Congresses: an illustrated history 1893—1986, New York, 1987.

Anonymous, ‘Der internationale Mathematiker-Kongress, 7.–9. August 1897 in Zurich’,

Schweizerische Padagogische Zeitschrift, 5 (1897), 257–263.

Decaillot, Anne-Marie, ‘L’ ‘entente cordiale scientifique’ ’, Images des Mathematiques, CNRS,

2009. http://images.math.cnrs.fr/L-entente-cordiale-scientifique.html

Frei, Gunther and Stammbach, Urs, Die Mathematiker an den Zurcher Hochschulen, Basel,

1994.

IMU Executive Committee, ‘Scientific Program of the International Congress of

Mathematicians (ICM) – Guidelines for the Program Committee (PC) and the

Organizing Committee (OC)’. Version endorsed by the IMU Executive Committee on

November 21, 2007’, from http://www.mathunion.org/activities/icm/pc/.Lehto, Olli, Mathematics without borders: a history of the International Mathematical Union,

New York, 1998.Meissner, Ernst, Carl Friedrich Geiser (1843–1934; Mitglied der Gesellschaft seit 1883),

Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich, 79 (1934), 371–376.Meyer, Wilhelm Franz (editor), Enzyklopadie der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit

Einschluss ihrer Anwendungen, vol. I: Arithmetik und Algebra, part I, Leipzig, 1898–

1904 (http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de).Rudio, Ferdinand, Verhandlungen des ersten Mathematiker-Kongresses in Zurich vom 9. bis 11.

August 1897, Leipzig, 1898.Westermann, Andrea, ‘Die wissenschaftliche Konferenz’, http://www.ethistory.ethz.ch/

besichtigungen/orte/konferenzWebsite of the ICM 2014 in Seoul: http://www.icm2014.org/

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